August 23
Posted by sydney on Aug 23rd, 2008
- 1792: August 23, 1792 – Some wheat bound; & some gleaning. I have not seen one wasp.
- 1790: August 23, 1790 – John Hale made a large wheat-rick on a staddle.
- 1789: August 23, 1789 – Boy brought me the rudiments of a hornet’s nest, with some maggots in it. Every ant-hill is in a strange hurry & confusion; & all the winged ants, agitated by some violent impulse, are leaving their homes; &, bent on emigration, swarm by myriads in the air, to the great emoulment of the hirundines, which fare luxuriously. Those that escape the swallows return no more to their nests, but looking out for new retreats, lay a foundation for future colonies. All the females at these times are pregnant. The males that escape being eaten, wander away & die.
- 1788: August 23, 1788 – Some mushrooms spring on my hotbeds. Mr Sam Barker, from a measurement taken, adjudged Wolmer pond to contain 66 acres, & an half, exclusive of the arm at the E. end: the pond keeper at Frinsham avers that his pond measures 80 acres. Zizania aquatica, Linn: called by the English setlers wild Rice; & by the Canadian French– Folle Avoin. In consequence of an application to a Gentleman at Quebec, my Bro. Thomas White received a cask of the seed of this plant, part of which was sent down to Selborne. His desire was to have received it in the ear, as it then would have been much more likely to have retain’d it’s vegetative faculty: but this part of his request was not attended to; for the seed arrived stript even of it’s husk. It has a pleasant taste, & makes a pudding equal to rice, or millet. This kind of corn, growing naturally in the water, is of great service to the wild natives of the south west part of N. America: for as Carver in his travels says, they have no farther care & trouble with it than only to tye it up in bunches when it first comes into ear, & when ripe to gather it into their boats; every person or family knowing their own by some distinction in the bandage. Carver observes, that it would be very advantageous to new settlers in that country, as it furnishes at once a store of corn the first year; & by that means removes the distress & difficulty incident to new colonies till their first crop begins to ripen. Linnaeus has given this plant the name of Zizania: but what could induce the celebrated Botanist to degrade this very beneficial grain with the title of that pernicious weed which the enemy in the parable served among the good-corn while men slept, does not so easily appear. (Matt. 13 chapter)
- 1787: August 23, 1787 – Much wheat carried. The Ewel, & Pound-field thrown open. Cool autumnal feel. Nightingales seen in Honey-lane: they were the last that I observed. Cut at one time 191 fine cucumbers.
- 1786: August 23, 1786 – We kept a young fern-owl for several days in a cage, & fed it with bread, & milk. It was moping, & mute by day; but, being a night bird, began to be alert as soon as it was dusk. *Sent it back to the brakes among which it was first found.
- 1785: August 23, 1785 – Martin’s & swallows congregate by hundreds on the church & tower. These birds never cluster in this manner, but on sunny days. They are chiefly the first broods, rejected by their dams, who are busyed with a second family.
- 1782: August 23, 1782 – The pond on Selborne-down is brimfull, & has run over.
- 1781: August 23, 1781 – Caught 8 hornets with a twig tipped with bird-lime. No wasps in my garden, nor at the grocer’s, or butcher’s shop. Five or six hornets will carry off a whole nectarine in the space of a day.
- 1779: August 23, 1779 – Sun, clouds, thunder shower, red even: Great blackness.
- 1778: August 23, 1778 – Flies torment the horses in a most unusual manner.
- 1775: August 23, 1775 – Sixteen wasps nests destroyed.
- 1774: August 23, 1774 – Missel-thrushes congregate & are very wild. Thistle-down floats. Thompson, who makes this appearance a circumstance attendant on his summer evening,
“Wide o’er the thistly lawn, as swells the breeze,/A whitening shower of vegetable down/Amusive floats…”
seems to have misapplyed it as to the season: since thistles which do not blow ’til the summer-solstice, cannot shed their down ’til autumn. - 1772: August 23, 1772 – Sun. Showers with wind. Vast showers. Young stoparolas come forth.
- 1771: August 23, 1771 – Young swallows & martins come out every day. Still weather. Wheat-harvest becomes pretty general.
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